Republicans Should Drop Trump at the Convention

A growing chorus of voices is arguing for Republican leaders to do the smart thing at next month’s convention and replace Donald Trump with a more viable nominee. Last week, it was CNN contributor and radio show host Hugh Hewitt, and David French at National Review who made the legal case that not a single delegate is actually bound to vote for Trump. This week, Jay Cost writes at The Weekly Standard:

It would certainly be unconventional to dump him from the ticket, but it would hardly be illegitimate — and there is too much at stake in this election for a fashionable reading of the party rules. A Trump nomination will leave the Republican party, the conservative movement, and the country at-large worse off. There is no reason to accept it as a fait accompli. When the delegates meet in Cleveland this July, they can and should select a nominee other than Donald Trump.

Cost is right. And he cites polling data with Trump plummeting in the wake of gaffe after gaffe. Though he won the GOP primary, Trump’s proving to be a flawed general-election candidate. There is too much at stake to put up a candidate as weak as Trump when Republicans have such a wide opening to defeat a hobbled candidate like Hillary Clinton.

Not only did Clinton emerge battered from a tumultuous intra-party primary fight, both Clinton and Trump face historic negatives that suggest an alternative to Trump could easily prevent a Clinton dynasty. More importantly, voters are open to new, fresh policy ideas after eight years of public debt explosion and regulatory expansion.

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Carrie Sheffield is the founder of Bold. She is passionate about storytelling to empower and connect others. A founding POLITICO reporter, Carrie contributed on political economy at Forbes and wrote editorials for The Washington Times. After earning a master’s in public policy from Harvard University, she managed credit risk at Goldman Sachs and researched for Edward Conard, Bain Capital founding partner and American Enterprise Institute scholar. She earned a B.A. in communications at Brigham Young University and completed a Fulbright fellowship in Berlin.